WHERE WE INVEST

Educate Global invests in purpose-led medium-sized businesses, initially in the East African region.

Educate Global invests risk capital in purpose-led, established medium-sized businesses, initially in the East African region. The Fundâ€™s investment objective is to invest in for-profit businesses entering the growth stage in five key sectors: nutrition, health, sanitation, energy and technology, to improve educational outcomes and to create quality employment opportunities for women and young people in low to middle-income communities.

Our first fund will focus on five countries in the region: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Djibouti. Our selected markets represent some of the worldâ€™s fastest growing economies, where population growth, rising incomes and urban demographic shifts are driving sustained consumer-driven economic expansion.

Over the near term, African economies are generally expected to grow faster than those in the United States or Europe1. Many market experts project that growth in this region will continue to accelerate in 2018, as demonstrated below:

Analysts expect most African currencies to depreciate in 2018, but at a slower pace than in 2017. Central banks around the region are expected to follow a restrictive monetary policy which would reduce inflation going forward 1. However, consumer spending, which is the single largest contributor to GDP, is expected to rise with the increase in internal demand for goods and services, combined with increased domestic and foreign investments.1

Medium-sized businesses play a pivotal role in these emerging economies, contributing up to 60 per cent of total employment and 40 per cent of GDP2, but have traditionally limited access to financing3.

Educate Global Fund 1 therefore seeks to capitalise on this enhanced demand for capital, alongside the competitive growth profile of the region, to not only generate strong financial returns and improve education delivery, but to create quality local employment opportunities.

Our management team achieves this by working alongside our portfolio businesses, supporting them to better serve the growing low and middle-income consumer segment, build expansion strategies, grow team capacity and scale their businesses regionally. We work to harness and multiply the intangible assets of our investee companies.

We actively screen for businesses with a track record of creating inclusive employment opportunities and of serving customers in rural areas, refugee camps, and neighboring fragile states.

Footnote 1: Economist Intelligence Unit & World Economic Outlook Update
Footnote 2: The World Bank
Footnote 3: The OECD reports a funding gap of US $190 billion across Africa for small and mid-sized companies.